Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Canada, though most later episodes place it in the US. A typical episode of SCTV presents a compendium of programming seen on the station throughout its broadcast day. A given episode could contain anything from SCTV news broadcasts to sitcoms, dramas, movies, talk shows, kid shows, commercial send-ups hawking non-existent products, and game shows.

Seven Signs You May Already Be Dead”. Also seen fairly frequently, particularly in later episodes, are behind-the-scenes plots focusing on life at the station. The small cast, typically six to eight members at any given time, play a wide variety of other station roles ranging from program hosts to commercial spokespersons. They also impersonate numerous popular celebrities appearing on the station’s programming. Close or Patinkin came up with the idea of presenting programming from the world’s smallest TV station.

The cast immediately jumped on the idea as a workable model for presenting a virtually unlimited range of characters, sketches, and ideas while still having a central premise that tied everything together. Alexander remained as producer and executive producer throughout SCTV’s run. Sahlins stayed for the first two seasons as a producer. Close had no further involvement with the series.

For the first six episodes, new episodes were seen once a month. In September 1977, Global ordered 13 additional episodes, which were seen once a week from September through December. Ramis was a Second City veteran, but with the Chicago troupe. All also served as writers on the show, although Martin and O’Hara did not receive writing credits on the earliest episodes.